SoCal FIOS outage(?) / static IP readdressing

Fri Jan 6 16:21:53 UTC 2017

In a message written on Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 04:51:26PM -0800, Paul B. Henson wrote:
> I'd call my business FIOS "prosumer" ;). Honestly, I'm not sure why
> you'd get business FIOS over residential FIOS if you don't need static
> IP addresses, at least if you're at an address where both are available.

I can't speak to Verizon, but I can speak to Comcast.

At a past address I had Comcast Business (cable modem) service at
a residential address, and then later downgraded it to Comcast
Residential service.

The similarities:
  - Both used the exact same cable coming into the house.
  - Both offered the same speeds.
  - Both offered static IP's for an additional fee.
  - Both clearly used the same routers, backbone, peering, etc.

The differences I could see:
  - Cable Modem
    - Residential: could rent a consumer grade or BYO (I did, a good one)
    - Business: Comcast supplied and required their better-than-average,
                modem.  It could be in bridge mode though.
  - Support
    - Residential: 0-30 minutes on hold, the one dispatch when I needed
                   a truck roll took ~24 hours.
    - Business: 0-2 minutes on hold, I had two dispatches one where the
                truck arrived within 30 minutes, the other in about 2
                hours.
  - Cost (At the time)
    - Residential: $75/month.
    - Business Class: $90/month.
  - Data Caps:
    - Residential: 250GB/month.
    - Business: None (with two paragraphs of disclaimer)

Differences I could not see/verify:
  - Cable Modem Channel Selection
    - I'm told in some cases business class cable modems get different
      DOCSYS channels which have less congestion than typical
      residential channels.  This of course varies greatly market to
      market, and is also dependent on the number of both resi and
      business subs on the segment.
  - Packet prioritization.
    - I'm told that business class packets are given somewhat higher
      priority (QoS) in the network.  I could find no way to verify
      this, and generally had no packet loss issues inside the Comcast
      network with either service.

Ultimately the reason to buy business class at a residential address
(and I think the Prosumer description is correct) is generally faster
repair times.  On congested segments it may also result in slightly
lesser packet loss.  Maybe, depending on how caps are done, it could be
worth while if you move a lot of data.

Obviously if these differences are worth the delta in price depends on
your situation and the exact delta in your location.  At the time I had
this I was working from home, so the extra $15/month insurance that I
could do my job was money well spent.

-- 
Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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